Ghana v. Germany: Jonathan Gold tells you where to eat during the match

Has the Cup been going on a week already? It has. We’ve eaten a lot of fondue, And the way things have been going, it’s looking as if the next round is going to involve a lot more in the way of fried plantains than it is tapas or fish n’ chips. Such is the way the new, almost aerodynamic ball bounces – and we’re going to have to see whether Costa Rica Restaurant (2500 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim, (714) 527-2010) is as persuasive with casado and tamal tico as their countrymen were against Italy.

So for this game, having at least a mild rooting interest in Ghana, if for no other reason than the African drumming class we took in college, we should be scouring the landscape for the kenkey and peanut soup, stewed cassava leaves and ultra-intense pepper sauce that you find at the Ghanaian restaurants up in Harlem. Unfortunately, since the Inglewood grocery/café Nana & Naa shut down a few years ago, Ghanaian cooking has been pretty scarce in Los Angeles – and again, the Nigerian dishes at Veronica Kitchen (528 W. Manchester, Inglewood, (310) 673-4890) sniff in the right direction, if egusi and fufu is your thing, although I wouldn’t expect much in the way of excited partisanship.

We trudge toward the crowded, noisy, well-lubricated confines of Wirtshaus (345 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 931-9291), where the screen is enormous, the kale salad at least has the benefit of culinary appropriateness, and the weisswurst is grand. Yay. Or you could head to the Goethe Institut (750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100, Los Angeles, (323) 525-3388), where the Beautiful Game may well take on a more intellectual cast. If you’re a fan of the U.S. team, you still want Ghana to win.